Colorful Sugar Flower Wedding Cake

I’m so excited to finally share with you all the pictures from my very first teaching experience. In Orlando, Florida, I taught my first class: “How to Design with Sugar Flowers”. It’s been hectic, and I wanted to wait until I could upload the cake images I captured, along with some student work. Taking the cake outside the convention center to photograph made all the difference. Our cakes are intended to be viewed with natural light. This sugar flower wedding cake is an exploration in texture and color. In keeping with my message about not using fresh florals on cakes and designing with sugar instead, I thematically included many flowers that would be poisonous if fresh, as I usually do. The anemones would go on that list, as would the bloom from a castor bean plant which includes ricinus.

Castor bean plants are ornamental in the garden, but as you may or may not know, they contain seeds that contain the poison ricin. Anyone watch the show Breaking Bad? I love Breaking Bad, and this poison did get some play on the show. Anywho, 3-4 of the seeds from the castor bean plant can kill you. Equivalent to the amount of salt you may sprinkle on an egg. Obviously, we would NOT use such a flower fresh on a cake, would we? BUT in sugar, we can, and it’s just wonderful.

Meeting and interacting with so many students from around the world, some of whom came from Spain, Brazil, and Australia, and some who came specifically to take our class, was unforgettable. I’m very thankful for such a kind and diverse group of students, and I’m so proud of their creativity in the class. Each cake and sugar flower arrangement made was entirely different. Considering essentially the same materials were available to each student, I’m so impressed by their creativity. Everyone wants to be creative, and often in these classes, you learn replication over creativity and design. I hope each of you was able to take something small away that will be useful to you going forward. Thank you The Americas Cake Fair for having us, and thank you so much to everyone who attended. I’m honored you’d want to take a class and meet us.